Apple.com the 5th most visited retail site on Cyber Monday

Apple’s Web site was the fifth most visited retail site on Cyber Monday, the traditionally tech-heavy first business day after the US long Thanksgiving weekend, according to new research by online measuring firm ComScore.

On Cyber Monday Apple’s Web site had 3.6 million unique visitors, which represents a 43 percent increase over the November average of 2.5 million daily unique visitors. Apple was the only computer-maker that broke the top five in 2008.

Other computer companies that made the list include Dell with 2.3 million visitors and Hewlett Packard with 1.9 million visitors, representing a 53 percent and 94 percent increase over the November average, respectively.

As you might expect, eBay topped the list of most visited retail sites with 12.9 million visitors on Cyber monday. Amazon Sites were next with 9.2 million visitors, Wal-Mart with 6.7 million and Target with 4.8 million visitors, rounded out the list.

Overall retail sites saw an increase of 33 percent with 57.1 million people visiting retail Web sites on Cyber Monday compared to an average of 42.9 million in November.

In terms of money spent, online buyers forked out $US846 million ($A1.29 billion) on Cyber Monday in 2008. This compares to $US733 million ($A1.12 billion) on the same day last year — a 15 percent increase in spending.

It’s not just Apple’s online presence that did well over the busiest shopping weekend of the year. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster tracked sales of Apple products on Black Friday at Apple retail locations and saw strong sales of Macs and the iPhone.

According to Munster’s observations, Apple was selling an average of 13 Macs per hour on Friday, up from the two per hour recorded by Munster and his team in early November.

The iPhone could also see a boost in sales, with Munster recording an average of 3.4 sales per hour on Friday. That’s up from the 1.3 per hour in early November.